Allergy-friendly restaurants in Bristol

Plant-based menus still have allergens

Bristol’s harbourside and neighbourhoods such as Gloucester Road have a lot of independent cooking, including vegetarian and vegan kitchens. Dropping meat does not drop peanut, tree nuts, sesame, soya or mustard. Vegan cheese is often soya or nuts. A pesto or a dressing may bring pine nut, cashew, walnut, tahini or mustard. Ask what the plant-based option is made from, rather than ordering it because it looks like the careful choice.

Pine nuts are not in the UK tree-nut list, and coconut is not treated as a tree nut for allergen labelling. If those are your foods, name them. A promise of “no nuts” can be given in good faith and still miss the ingredient you mean.

Markets and packed food

Covered markets, including St Nicholas Market, mix food cooked in front of you with pots and pastries made earlier. If an item was packed on the premises before you chose it, Natasha’s Law requires the ingredients and the 14 allergens on the label, emphasised so you can see them. If it is cooked to order, ask the trader what is in it and what else is on the griddle.

A market is a row of separate businesses. The stall you liked last time is not a reference for the stall opposite.

Cider, sulphites and the English rating

Bristol is closely associated with cider. Sulphites are widely used in cider, and sulphur dioxide above 10 milligrams per litre has to be declarable as an allergen. If sulphites are your issue, ask about the drink as well as the plate, and about cider or wine reduced into a sauce. Labels and producers differ, so this is a question, not a rule that every glass is over the threshold.

The hygiene rating here is the English 0 to 5 scheme, and display is voluntary. SafePlate may show the Food Standards Agency number. It remains a hygiene figure. Set your foods and search Bristol when you want a map of places. The allergy score stays unknown until a menu or a note mentions the food.

Bristol’s food safety team, and two adult A&Es

Bristol City Council’s Food Safety team takes complaints about food and about food premises in the city. Email food.safety@bristol.gov.uk or call 0117 922 2500. The postal address on the council site is PO Box 3399, Bristol, BS1 9NE. The council says it aims to reply to a complaint within two working days. Wrong or missing allergen information can also be reported through the Food Standards Agency postcode form, which sends it to the authority for that business.

Temple Meads is the main station. The harbourside and Gloucester Road are in the city, and so is Southmead in the north. Bristol Airport is south of the centre and still in Bristol. Adult accident and emergency, for ages 16 and over, is at Bristol Royal Infirmary on Marlborough Street, BS2 8HW, and at Southmead Hospital, Southmead Road, BS10 5NB. Bristol Royal Hospital for Children is the children’s emergency hospital. Call 999 for anaphylaxis rather than deciding which door is closest.

I could not verify a Bristol-only allergy support group with a public page. Anaphylaxis UK and Allergy UK are national. Use them for day-to-day support, and use 999 if a reaction is happening.